


Early Bird Gets The Ornament

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Christmas, Derek is a Good Boyfriend, Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Has Issues, holidays are hell, stiles has anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-13 11:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12982674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Stiles will never stop being bitter about Halloween being slighted in the big corporate holiday game, but Derek is pretty sure his extreme frustration towards the early onslaught of Christmas goods runs a little deeper than Stiles' propensity to favor the most ghoulish day of the year.... he just has to find out what it is





	Early Bird Gets The Ornament

**Author's Note:**

> Day two of 12 Days Of Sterek- once again inspired by real life, I myself have fairly bad holiday anxiety and time dysphoria, it makes for an annoying combination

" _Ugh_ would you look at this!? It isn't even Halloween yet and they're already putting out Christmas stuff, this is terrible!"

Derek wasn't sure what surprised him _less_ , the fact that it was only October 16th and they were already watching the beginning of the Christmas take over, or the fact that Stiles was frustrated with it

Well...

"Frustrated" might be an understatement, he was glaring at a row of inflatable snowmen like they were responsible for all of the bad things in the world

"It's pretty annoying," he agreed dismissively, staring down at his grocery list and trying to remember what aisle cashews would be on...

"'Annoying'!? _Annoying_!? Derek it's a TRAGEDY! A TRAVESTY! They aren't even giving Halloween a fair shake! At this point Christmas is close to THREE. MONTHS. away and Halloween is two WEEKS away so why would they do this!?"

"Because they're trying to suck every last drop of monetary blood they can out of the population and there are people who start buying Christmas stuff the minute it hits the shelves?" Derek shrugged back

Nuts... either aisle three or aisle seven....

Where-

"But Halloween is just as big of a business! Did you know that on decorations alone Halloween actually made MORE money than Christmas last year?"

"It doesn't matter, you're never going to change the minds of corporate giants,"

"Doesn't mean I can't complain about it, did you know that Hallmark is going to air nothing but Christmas movies during the week of Halloween? Can you BELIEVE that!? They spend two weeks of October airing Halloween stuff and then ON Halloween they air CHRISTMAS movies, is that not the most sickening thing you've ever seen in your life!?"

"Pretty terrible, but there isn't anything you can do about it,"

"I can complain,"

"God knows that's the truth..." Derek muttered with a sigh

Stiles shot him a look, but Derek didn't bother looking back

"Stiles, can't you just try to ENJOY Halloween wile it's here?" he asked a beat later, finally locating the correct aisle and pulling the cart towards it

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do, I WOULD do it, if a certain over-commercialized holiday would stop getting in the way,"

Derek just sighed again, trying to concentrate on the grocery list

He'd probably be hearing about this for the next five minutes, he might as well get used to it

 

~+~

 

"Hey, I'm running out to the post office, need me to pick up anything wile I'm out?"

Derek frowned, eyebrows pinching in confusion as he glanced up from his newspapper- because yes, some people _do_ still read the newspapper, thank you very much

"The post office on a Saturday?"

"Yeah, I mean they don't close until noon so why not? Besides, look, I have things to mail,"

To prove his point- even though Derek hadn't asked him to- he reached into the tote bag he was carrying and yanked out a small stack of yellow envelopes, waving them around before putting them back in the bag

"....Ok?"

"My point is, I'm going to the post office, so I'm going to be out for a little wile if you need anything from like... a store or anything,"

Derek considered that, rolling the suggestion around in his head for a few moments

"You know.... I could use some doughnuts..."

"Doughnuts, got it, love you babe, see you soon," Stiles said in a rush, giving Derek a quick kiss before darting out of the living room and then out of the house

Stiles hadn't even asked him about the sudden pastry request- something that was odd, considering Derek rarely asked for any kind of treat and Stiles was always quick to point it out and praise him when he did...

....

Yep, he was _definitely_ up to something

 

~+~

 

"Stiles? What are you doing?"

The witch jerked, a panicked look on his face as he suddenly pressed up against the closet door, arms spread out wide as if trying to cover the space

"Nothing," he said quickly- _too_ quickly

"Stiles, I really don't have to be a werewolf to know you're lying," Derek noted with a slight frown

"But you ARE a werewolf, so you don't need to .. NOT be a werewolf either,"

"What- .. that doesn't even make any sense..."

"You don't make any sense!" Stiles shouted back in accusation, racing off suddenly and rushing down the stairs

"What..."

Derek just shook his head, deciding not to even bother asking

Stiles was up to something, he had been for weeks- atleast... Derek thought he was, he had a pretty good feeling about it as a matter of fact

Stiles was an alright liar when he wanted to be, not the best, but not too terrible

He wasn't quite as good at hiding things- generally speaking- but he could usually manage

So if whatever he was hiding was this obvious, it must be pretty huge, and given his reaction.....

It must be in that closet

Derek turned his attention towards the closet, stepping up to it and easily sliding the door open

Everything looked normal, but that was nothing to go by

Not only was Stiles a master at hiding things (well, physically hiding them that is) but he was also a witch who had more than enough power in his glamours

He could glamour pretty much anything at any time and Derek had ZERO doubts that some part of this closet was under a glamour

....

He just didn't know wich part that was

Wich was exactly why he was going to have to call someone a little more familiar with magic to help him

 

~+~

 

"Not that I'm not like, _really_ flattered, but ... why exactly am I here again?"

"Because Stiles had been tutoring you in magic and what's associated with it, I need to figure out what's glamoured and how to break the spell, that's where you come in,"

Mason frowned slightly, staring at the closet door as if that was the source of this insanity

"You know that Stiles hasn't taught me any _actual_ magic right? I mean that's more of a... born-in talent than a taught skill..."

"Yes, but he's been teaching you about _undoing_ magic right? Spell breaking, potion antidotes, that sort of thing, so you should know how to dispell a glamour, right?"

"Well.... some of them, the lower level ones... I mean I'm not all that advanced yet..."

"You don't have to be," Derek assured him

He was pretty sure that the only person Stiles was trying to keep out of whatever he was hiding in the closet was him, he doubted his boyfreind needed to ward the place like Fort Nox

"Alright... alright, I can try," the human finally relented, pushing up his sleeves and stepping towards the closet before closing his eyes and pushing his hands out in front of himself

Derek watched tensely as the human felt around, looking for any hints of something out of place

He wasn't sure how this worked exactly, with how Mason intended to seek out and break the glamour, Stiles had never taught him anything about witchcraft or related studies, but Mason was incredibly smart and the wolf had zero doubts that if anyone could figure it out, it'd be him

"I found it,"

He knew it

"Can you break it?"

Mason gave a quiet hum, stepping back as if trying to judge something about the glamour before giving a slow, quiet nod

"Yeah.... yeah I think so, it doesn't look too hard,"

"Good," Derek said with a relieved sigh

He didn't want to invade his boyfreind's privacy- really, that wasn't what all of this was about

He just wanted to know what the hell he was trying to hide from him

(Ok that... probably didn't sound quite right but the point was, he just wanted to know if everything was ok, make sure that nothing was wrong or anything, that was all)

He expected plenty of things to come of all of this, but- naturally- the one thing that _did_ come of it... was the one thing he didn't expect....

 

~+~

 

Stiles bit his lip, trying to be as quiet as humanly possible as he shut the door behind him and started tip-toeing around the corner

Hopefully, with any luck, he could sneak upstairs before Derek even noticed he was home....

"So, care to tell me where you were?"

Apparently luck was not on his side

"Wow, that's creepy and possessive, why does it matter where I've been?"

"It doesn't, I was just wondering if you were planning on adding to the _stash_ I found upstairs,"

And before Stiles could even TRY to feign ignorance and pretend he didn't know what Derek was talking about, the wolf yanked a little witch's hat ornament out of his pocket and dangled it in front of the young witch across from him

Welp

"How the hell did you get in my stash!?"

"I think the far better question is 'why the hell is there a stash in the first place?'!"

As much as Stiles hated pretty much all of this, he had to admit, he hated this the most

"Can you just settle with 'it's a long story' and leave it at that?"

"Absolutely not," Derek frowned deeper

Stiles heaved a loud, low sigh, hanging his head and looking down at the ground

"I take it you want an explanation?"

"That'd be nice,"

Stiles heaved a sigh, a look of utter ... sadness.... falling over his face

"Alright, just.... can we go in the living room to talk then? So I'm not standing here in front of the door feeling like a trapped animal?"

Derek nodded slowly, easily moving aside to let Stiles pass and following him into the living room

"I don't mean to make you feel like a trapped animal, just so you know,"

"Yeah, I pretty much figured you didn't, 'cause if you did you and I would have some serious problems,"

"No problems, I promise, I just want to know why you have Santa's workshop in our closet,"

Stiles looked mostly.... ashamed as he sat down on the couch, head down, eyes on the carpet, completely refusing to look at Derek

It made the werewolf feel like whatever this was really wasn't just about having an addiction to Christmas decorations, it was .... something more......

"Stiles?" he asked softly, sitting down next to his boyfreind and gently setting a hand on his shoulder

Now that he was seeing how serious this was- whatever it was- he felt more and more certain that his decision to snoop had been the correct one....

And that his decision to take a .. rougher... approach in confronting Stiles had been the wrong one....

"Stiles.... you know you can tell me whatever it is, I'm not going to judge you,"

"You sure about that?" the witch snorted back

"I swear it," Derek replied seriously, lips pressed into a firm line

"Ok.. ok... you know that thing where like.... you realize you're gonna be another year older in a month and you get this freaky 'oh hell that scares me' type of a feeling? Or you feel like a year passed in the blink of an eye?"

"Yeah?"

"Ok, so, that's time dysphoria- I think that's what it's called- and mine is... worse than normal, I always had it a little worse than usual because of my anxiety but after The Wild Hunt.... it messed me up, my sense of time is just totally skewed, and so now when I have one of those panicky moments it's PANICKY, and instead of worrying about my birthday being in one month I worry about it being in seven months, when I feel like a year has passed in the blink of an eye it isn't just a weird feeling, it's a depressing feeling, it makes me nervous, like.. I feel like a year of my life is GONE, type of a thing..."

"Ok," Derek said slowly

"I .. am sorry that you're dealing with that... but what does it have to do with Santa's Workshop taking over our closet?"

"Because my sense of time is so skewed I rely alot on stuff like schedules and non-written cues to remind myself of what day it is, like instead of looking at the calendar and going 'oh it's Monday' it helps to go 'Ok, it's Monday, Supergirl comes on Monday, I take my dad an extra muffin for breakfast on Monday, the mailman is always late on Monday- Monday', does that make sense?"

"Is that why you always get so annoyed when a long-running show changes nights?"

"Now you're catching on,"

Now that Derek thought about it.... alot of things were starting to make more sense

Stiles wasn't a very schedule-driven person, alot of things were pretty spur-of-the-moment with him, but when he WAS attached to something being at a certain time on a certain day he could get pretty .... anal about it...

He had gone _nuts_ a few weeks ago when his father had to work late and couldn't make their weekly Sunday night dinner

Derek had just assumed that it was because Stiles always made a bigger deal of dinner on Sundays than most nights and had been defrosting a roast but this made much more sense

"So holidays are just the worst of everything because you have to actually PREPARE for those, so advertising and stuff starts really early,"

"That's why you're always so angry about people advertising for Christmas in October.... not because it steps on Halloween, because it messes with your sense of time,"

"Well, yeah, but I still hate that it steps on Halloween, that's legit, there's just more to it than that,"

Well.... progress, Derek supposed

"I start seeing Valentine's Day stuff around New Year's or Easter stuff in early March and it drives me CRAZY because as much as I try to LOGICALLY tell myself that stuff is a month away it FEELS like it's right around the corner and just... it makes me anxious and obsessive, I hate it..."

"And back to school advertising really sends you through the roof because the school year starts earlier and earlier every year, right?"

"Partly, part of me still gets that anxious tick like I feel like it still applies to me or something, it's weird being in school since I was four and having to do the same thing over and over again for fourteen years and then all of a sudden- POOF, it no longer applies, so it messes with my head twice over,"

Stiles paused, rolling his head with consideration

"Plus the back-to-school commercials just get more and more irritating every year I swear to God...."

Derek snorted, leaning back and gently placing a hand over his boyfreind's

"I think I'm starting to see where this is going, you overbuy everything early because your anxiety makes you feel like Christmas is right around the corner- even if it's months away- and you panic, am I warm?"

"Boiling, it ... starts in July, every year, because Hallmark runs their stupid 'Christmas in July' week and I see commercials for it and oh my GOD .... if you lived in my head during that you would want to jump off a bridge,"

From what Derek had been learning about Stiles' mental health over the last several years, he had already come to that conclusion, but he wasn't going to admit to it

"How do you even FIND Christmas stuff in July?"

"Hallmark has an ornament release party, if you can believe that,"

"I think you need to stay away from that company..."

It seemed to be the root of all Christmas related evil in this case, after all

Stiles just shrugged though, shifting a little and leaning back against the couch

"It started with ONE baby Groot ornament Derek, and then there were sales, and they have COOKIES at those events, and then there was free stuff and punch cards..... between that and the increasing level of nerd merch they're an evil mastermind,"

"I think the very fact that they start selling Christmas ornaments in JULY makes them an evil mastermind but go on,"

"Ok, so, there's THAT, and then there's normal stores and commercials and stuff and... I just get obsessive and panicky and .. well, you see the results,"

"Stiles... did you really think I wouldn't understand this? You could have told me,"

"Derek, even I don't really understand it, how could I expect YOU to?"

"Maybe I understand you better than you do, much like how you understand me better than I understand myself,"

"I guess so," he mumbled quietly

Derek could tell how badly this seemed to be eating at him, wich was... sad

Derek just wanted to help but he seemed to have picked at an already sore wound

"You know.... I might have an idea," he said slowly, successfully catching Stiles' attention

"What is it?"

"Well... you don't need to completely quit what you're doing, just... moderate it, how about instead of going to these ... ornament festivals and things alone, when you're already vulnerable, you take me with you? When you feel the urge to do some early shopping just... tell me, and until mid-November, whatever you want to do, run it by me first and maybe we can prevent Christmastown from hitting us wile it's still summer, buy one ornament here, one gift there, instead of going completely crazy with it, that's fair right?"

Stiles looked.... absolutely shocked

As if Derek had just told him that he was getting a pony for Christmas or something

Wich kind of broke his heart in all honesty, was Stiles really this surprised that he wasn't being a complete a-hole about this?

"You'd really do that for me? Even in July?"

"Why not? Stiles, one baby Groot is not the problem, Hallmark throwing up in our closet is the problem, if it makes you feel better to do some of this stuff early- like... releiving the pressure on a wound- then why should I stop you?"

Stiles bit his lip, leaning over and giving Derek a tight, squeezing hug

"Nobody ever gets it," he said quietly

"Nobody ever gets anything about my anxiety..... I feel like everybody is always trying to do the opposite of the right thing you know? Like petting a cat the wrong way, gee, thanks for the petting, I appreciate it, but you did it wrong so now I have to go lick myself for two hours until I stop feeling like a wreck,"

Derek snorted again, wrapping an arm around the witch and nuzzling into his throat, inhaling his scent and closing his eyes

"I think I understand more about you than most people, when it comes to the things that scare us, the things that keep us up at night... we aren't that different, those fears just manifest in different forms,"

"Wow, look who's been watching Dr. Phil,"

In retaliation to that, Derek bit down against Stiles' neck, causing a yelp to spring out of his throat

"I do read, you know, and common sense is also a thing,"

Stiles just replied with a huff, leaning back and cupping the wolf's face, thumbs padding affectionately against his beard-covered cheeks

"I know, I know, but.... it's still just .. nice, you know? I mean you've always been a good boyfreind but I never know when I'm finally gonna be too weird for you to understand,"

"I don't think you'll ever hit that point, we're together in our weirdness,"

"Yeah," Stiles settled, leaning close enough that their foreheads touched and closing his eyes, breathing Derek in for a few moments before giving him a soft, lingering kiss, half affection, half to settle his own mind

"I guess that's true.... there's just one flaw in your plan though, about the Christmas thing,"

"What's that?"

"I can't exactly check in with you about your own gifts, and considering I bought your first one in August...."

"Easy, substitute me for Lydia, she loves Christmas, she loves shopping, but she also knows the difference between a good purchase at a good time of year and a bad one, she's the perfect alternative,"

"Mm... I guess that's pretty much true...."

As long as Stiles wasn't planning on stepping into a shoe store, Lydia should have a pretty good leash on him without just telling him "No" to everything- wich was the goal

Control, not denial

(Wich... sounded alot kinkier than Derek intended and he could only be relieved that he hadn't said that out loud, otherwise this conversation would be taking a far different turn at his expense...)

"So ... if you start Christmas shopping in July, when do you start buying Halloween decorations?"

"Derek, babe, I love you.... but don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to ok?"

Derek frowned at that, nose wrinkling and head tilting to the side

".... Is it before or after Valentine's Day?"

"Again-"

"I know I know.... don't ask questions I don't want the answer to..."


End file.
